Sign arrangement



May 26, 1959 Filed Sept. 12, 1957 G. WALTERS SIGN ARRANGEMENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Pie/0 S 76 Z.

m w w 30 INVENTOR. 6-4-2440 W44 rsles x BY G. E. WALTERS SIGN ARRANGEMENT May 26, 1959 Filed Sept. 12, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1N VENTOR. 6591405 #4447525 United States Patent 2,887,803 SIGN Gerald E. Walters, Zephyr Cove, Nev.

Application September 12,1957, Serial No. 683,504

1 f (or. 40-130 This invention relates to signs for use in retail stores, and more particularly to means for improving reflected light contrast in fluorescent plastic signs.

The invention is directly concerned with signs in which special individual plastic letters are employed. These letters are made with forw'ardly extending edges and polished and recessed central surfaces and are made of a dark colored clear plastic sheetv material to cause light entering the central surfaces, to be reflected internally and thereby to emanate from the forwardly extending edges in contrast to the dark color of the central surfaces.

The invention isby no means limited to the specific type of the material employed .intheabove-described letters. For example, any .letterwhich has a polished central surface and shaped forlight' emitting edges may be employed with the invention, 0 For example, plastic letters made of the acrylic resin group of plastics sold under the name of Plexiglas may be employed.

It isconventional to-mount these letters adjacent one another to provide a vertical sign on an interior wall of a store building having an overhead light source, for example, such as a group of four longitudinal four-foot fluorescent tubes that are spaced from the wall. However when this arrangement is used, the central surfaces of the letters reflect the light emanating from the overhead light source. The reflection is produced by the high polish of the plastic central surfaces and not by the fluorescent character of the plastic. Thus, although the central surfaces of the lettersare darkly colored, the reflections from the polished central surfaces destroy the good contrast which may be produced by the use of the fluorescent property of and colored and recessed construction of the letters in that substantial glare is produced from the polished surfaces.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a sign letter arrangement preventing glare produced by overhead light reflected from polished central surfaces of sign letters having forwardly extending fluorescent edges.

The present invention achieves this and other objects and overcomes the above-described and other disadvantages of the prior art by providing, in combination, a room having a vertical wall and an overhead light source spaced from the wall, a group of letters to spell out at least one intelligible word, the letters having forwardly extending edges and polished recessed central surfaces, the letters being made of a dark colored clear plastic sheet material to cause light entering the central surfaces to be reflected internally to emanate from the forwardly edges in contrast to the dark color of the central surfaces, and means for mounting the letters on an upper portion of the wall in a position inclined with respect to the wall in a direction from bottom portions to top portions of the letters and toward the light source to improve the contrast of the fluorescent edges of the letters with the dark central surfaces by lowering the angle at which light is reflected from the polished central surfaces and thereby preventing glare therefrom to persons viewing the letter from positions spaced from the wall.

The invention will be better understood considered in connection with the following description and the accompanying drawings made a part of this specification.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a front elevational View of a conventional sign letter which is employed in the sign arrangement of th invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the sign letter taken on the line 2-2 shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of a sign arrangement of the prior art wherein reflection fiom central portions of sign letters similar to that shown in Figs. 1 and 2 produces glare and destroys contrast between sign letter edges and polished central surfaces of the letter;

Fig. 4 is a side elevational view of the sign arrangement of the present invention illustrating how glare is substantially eliminated from the point of view of a viewer in a room spaced from the wall on which the sign of the invention is mounted;

Fig. 5 is a front elevational view of the sign shown in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of a letter and sign letter support taken on the line 6-6 shown in Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view of the sign letter support taken on the line 77 shown in Fig. 5; and

Fig. 8 is an exploded view of the sign letter support shown in Fig. 5 with a letter attached.

, In the drawings, in Fig. 1, a sign letter S is shown having a forwardly extending edge 10 and a polished and recessed central surface 12. The recessed character of the letter is best illustrated in Fig. 2. This letter S, like all the other letters shown in all the drawings, is made of a dark colored clear plastic sheet material impregnated with a fluorescent material to cause light entering the central surface 12 to be reflected internally and to emanate from the forwardly extending edges 10 in contrast to the dark color of the central surfaces 12.

The manner in which letters such as the letter S shown in Fig. 1 are employed is illustrated in Fig. 3 where a prior art sign arrangement 14 is shown having an end letter T indicated at 16, all the letters of the sign being mounted from a first rectangular strip of plastic 18 which may be fixed to a corresponding letter, for example, the letter T indicated at 16 by heat and pressure. Likewise a rectangular strip of plastic 20 is fixed to the back of the letter 16 by the same method. A hole is provided through the strip 20 into which a screw 22. is fixed on each side of the letter 16. The letter 16 is mounted on a wall 24 of a room having an overhead lighting fixture 26 including four longitudinal fluorescent lamps 23. Light emanates from the fixture 26 in a direction indicated by a dotted line 30 and is reflected in a direction indicated by a dotted line 32.

In the prior art arrangement of Fig. 3, it is thus seen that the contrast of character of the fluorescent forwardly extending edges such as the edges 10 shown in the letter S in Fig. l with the dark colored central surface 12 is substantially destroyed by the reflection of light in a direction 32 from polished central surfaces of the letters of the sign arrangement 14.

This problem is overcome by a sign arrangement of the invention indicated at 34 in Fig. 4 including letters 36 fixed to wall 24 by means of a first rectangular plastic strip 38 fixed to the bottom of the letters 36 and a second rectangular plastic strip 40 fixed to the backs of the letters 36 at the bottom thereof. Wedges 42 are then fixed at appropriate points on each side of each letter 36 by heat and pressure. Registering holes are provided through both second strip 40 and wedge 42 through 3 which screws 44 are provided to fix the sign arrangement 34 to the wall 24.

In Fig. 4, it can be seen that the letters 36 are all inclined with respect to the wall 24 at an angle A from the bottom of the letters to their top and extending toward the light fixture 26, For this reason, the problem of the prior art is overcome. It is to be noted that the angle of inclination 30 of light emanating from the fixture 26 is reflected in a direction 45 which may be vertically downward or even rearwardly toward the wall 24. Thus, it is impossible for persons in the center of the room to have the contrast provided by the dark color of the recessed polished portions of the letters with the forwardly extending fluorescent edges of the letters from being destroyed by glare from the polished central surfaces of the letters indicated at 47 in Figs. 5 and 6 on a letter F.

The details of the construction of the sign arrangement of the invention are shown in all four Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8. In Figs. 7 and 8, registering holes through second strip 40 and wedges 42 is indicated at 46.

Although one specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, changes and modifications will of course suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. The invention is therefore not to be limited to a specific embodiment shown because it is shown merely for purposes of illustration, the true scope of the invention being defined only in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A sign arrangement comprising a group of letters to be mounted on a flat supporting surface for spelling out at least one intelligible word, said letters having forwardly extending edges and polished recessed central surfaces, said letters being made of a dark colored clear plastic sheet material which causes light entering said central surfaces to be reflected internally to emanate from said forwardly extending edges in contrast to the dark color of said central surfaces, first and second clear, colorless plastic strips of rectangular cross section fixed respectively to the bottom and back of each letter, said second plastic strip being fixed to the back of each letter at the bottom thereof, a colorless clear plastic wedge fixed to the back of each second plastic strip on each side of each letter, each of said wedges having its widest dimension at the top of said second plastic strip, said second plastic strip and said wedges having aligned holes, and a screw to extend through each hole to mount said letters on an upper portion of said supporting surface with said plastic strips in a position inclined with respect to said surface in a direction from bottom portions to top portions of said letters and towards a light source to improve contrast of the light emitting edges of said letters with said dark central surfaces by lowering the angle at which light is reflected from said polished central surfaces and thereby preventing glare therefrom to persons viewing the letters from positions spaced therefrom.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 571,698 Siddall Nov. 17, 1896 811,298 Kingsbury Jan. 30, 1906 1,215,600 Wiley Feb. 13, 1917 1,357,280 Dulle Nov. 2, 1920 2,523,290 Gardner Sept. 26, 1950 2,588,183 Vigon Mar. 4, 1952 2,595,970 McGill May 6, 1952 2,602,254 Diekmann July 8, 1952 2,637,927 Gadomski May 12, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 828,628 Germany Jan. 21, 1952 

